RENOVATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, OPENINGS, VIPS AND MANY, MANY FRIENDS

FORZA 9 Gallery opened in Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus on the 30th of April 2006 with an exhibition of Yianna Nicolaou, a young Cypriot artist from Nicosia. After Yianna many other local, national and international artists exhibited their work. The permanent collection on display was a selection of paintings, mosaics, glass and pottery by local artists.

The idea for a gallery was born when a tiny shop - formerly the maiden's quarters of the main house - in the centre of Polis became available for rent. It was a horror shop, stuffed with the worst diy projects - the amount of rubbish that came out of 12 square meters was simply amazing. But then the real challenge began: connecting and renovating the 2nd room.

With help of LCN Developer Lakis Theodoulou I found people to help clear the old rubbish, plaster, put in a door and windows and some lights. And with help of my friends the place was just ready for the opening on the 30th of April 2006 - perhaps a bit of wet paint and concreet here and there...

2007 was an important year for Forza 9 gallery. There were several experiments to increase the income of the gallery since my aim was to make it self-supporting. The experiment with art rental was not a success. The painting lessons were. As well as the encaustic wax sales, at least for a while. A big hit was the jewellery and glass brought in from a shop in Nicosia. And finally the art materials brought a lot of new people in although it hardly generated any profit. By the end of the year Forza 9 gallery had become the place to go for picture framing, finding gifts and postcards, buying interesting books and have a free glass of wine during the opening of an exhibition.

Business was becoming stable and thanks to the picture framing and the sales of gifts and books I made actually a bit of profit. The money went to a very nice project: the exhibition of international artist Ariana Cuevas. I guess just a handfull of people realised what a special occasion it was, but that didn't make it less exiting. On top of that, I got a phonecall from Nicholas Panayi, really established Cypriot artist, asling if he could have an exhibition in August when he and his family would spend the holidays in Polis.

In December 2008 the British Pound collapsed and from one day to the next the British expats - who were the majority of my customers - stopped spending money. Sales dropped dramatically. I hardly sold a postcard. At the same time I got bored of the routine and started looking for new challenges. The old house next to Petrides car rental became available for rent and I decided to take it. It took a few months to renovate but the result was simply fantastic.

The new location for Forza 9 gallery opened in November 2009 with an exhibition of Stephanie Wood. The opening was a big event in the history of Forza 9 gallery because it showed how many people became good friends and (sometimes) customers, and appreciated our hard work to bring a bit of culture and entertainment to Polis Chrysochous.

Although most artists had dropped their prices considerably and the numbers of visitors were good, hardly anything sold. Tired of having to explain to exhibiting artists that it was not their fault that there were no sales, I decided to close the gallery end of December and so it happened.